In roundtable forum, academics talk education

President Choue In-won delivers a keynote speech at the Presidents’ Roundtable, a key event in the 2014 Asia-Pacific Association for International Education Conference and Exhibition, yesterday at the Grand Peace Palace in Kyung Hee University. By Park Sang-moon

Dozens of university officials and academics in the region attended the Presidents’ Roundtable session yesterday to share their views on developing and improving higher education systems in the Asia-Pacific region.

A key event in the 2014 Asia-Pacific Association for International Education (Apaie) Conference and Exhibition, the forum was hosted at the Grand Peace Palace in Kyung Hee University.

“All of the unsolved global challenges that we need to examine from a larger perspective, including the questions of the state, market and industry that dominate society, ultimately boil down to the question of human beings,” said Choue In-won, the president of Kyung Hee University, during his keynote address.

“To grapple with this question, I believe that the university should make more efforts to empower the values and interests that concern all of humanity.”

The roundtable discussion, titled “Toward Conscious Higher Education: Challenges, Opportunities and the Emerging Role of University for the Global Agenda,” was presided over by President Flora Chia-I Chang, of Tamkang University in Taiwan; President Rajata Rajatanavin, of Mahidol University in Thailand; Chancellor Tom Apple of the University of Hawaii at Manoa; President Yoo Ki-pung of Sogang University; and President Lee Yong-goo of Chung-Ang University. It was moderated by Jason Scorza of Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.

The roundtable is one of the events of the 2014 Apaie Conference and Exhibition, which runs from March 17 to 21 at the aT Center in Yangjae-dong, southern Seoul, with the overall theme of “Enhancing Cross-Border Education Cooperation with Universities in Asia-Pacific: From Past to Present and the Future.”

Universities in the Asia-Pacific region set up more than 150 booths at the exhibition, giving international experts and educators an opportunity to gather information on each institution. Parallel sessions on international education and exchanges were also held on the sidelines. Apaie is a nonprofit, constituent-led organization made up of more than 1,000 individual members, including professors and international exchange coordinators. The association, established in 2004, has held a conference and exhibition every year since 2006 at Korea University.

Last year’s conference was held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

This year’s event was co-hosted by 14 universities in Seoul, including Kyung Hee University, Chung-Ang University, Dankook University and Ewha Womans University.

BY KIM BONG-MOON [bongmoon@joongang.co.kr]